what a bust of a first set....5 songs, what a rip off, then followed by an even shittier 2nd set.

It is the same pedal Gilmour uses on Pink Floyd's 'Marooned.' It came out in 94 and Jerry must have wanted to try it and got one.

Interesting Fire.

2-21 is best of 95. This is 2nd.

I stepped back into the world on May 20, 1995 by way of Ballard WA after a year on a misbegotten journey to the fishing grounds of the Aleutians chasing the dying illusion of freedom and manhood aboard a trawler in the Bering sea. My folly was revealed not long after taking to sea on this ocean-raping vessel but alas, I was young and foolish so I stood fast for that horrid year far beyond the sight of trees. Upon the satisfaction of my contract with SeaTerror Inc. I swore to never again partake in such a horrid disregard for the planet and its occupants.
Upon my safe return to Seattle I found myself at last free from my idiotic self-imposed indenture and feeling quite tentative as to how I tread thenceforth, now and forevermore recalling my solemn vow. Upon retrieving my pay packet, all the while divided against myself- good capitalist piglet vs. opportunistic yet determinedly self sufficient pseudo-hippie, I staggered into the heart of Seattle, the marvel that it was in 1995. Mind you friend, this is pre-global domination Starbucks, Ubiquit-internet, and though our ships' companies HQ was located in Pike Place my only other business there at the time was to retrieve the psilocybe mushroom grow kit to be sought deep within the organs of that touristcentric center. It was therein that I discovered, to my great delight, the impending Dead show only four days hence at Memorial. Well! That will do just so! An opportunity to cleanse my soul among the good people of the music. The following three days were occupied with securing tickets and transport, and by-and-by I found myself cautiously making my way towards this ultimate and some say, last true expression of American freedom.
Was this a dream? Was I just offered windowpane from that most decidedly clean-cut college boy on this painfully bright concrete clad sidewalk? looking as I do, seven years of hair and beard like some urban sasquatch, one that he might run from in abject terror in any other circumstance? Yet here he stood with his two kindly companions, sincerity emanating from their every pore, wishing to share the enormity of their beautiful discovery? To his credit, his was an honorable mission and he spoke no lie. Blessings to you kind brother, wherever you may be today. Glorious gifts await those that disregard stereotypes!
As the tabs dissolved on my tongue I thought, could this be real? after a year full of hellish dangers not unlike combat, as heavy seaborne equipment indiscriminately rendered the limbs from my shipmates, here am I? But yes! The sun shone its best that day as we all made our way to that intimate gathering of 90,000. Yes, dear reader, this was my first show inside the gates! While I had spent many other days/nights in lots asunder, begging for miracles, copping vegie burritos aplenty, this was MY inaugural self induced miracle. Though it took an unsettling force of will to disregard those impassioned pleas of "miracle" from the kind beloved brothers and sisters lining the approach to the gate. Steal your face.
By the time I arrived the place was to capacity and the boys were in full cry ala Minglewood. Rather than fulfilling my directive to take a particular seat, I spent the entirety of my visit traveling the venue from nosebleed to forest and back throughout the show. Alas, long about Space I began feeling a mite itchy and made haste for the exit. This was no mistake as I emerged into the solemn surroundings to find the dejected survivors scattered about the eerily peaceful park-like environs enjoying the show as to best of their abilities by way of strained ear, unwittingly occupying far better seats yet less the precious line of sight. Lo, they took no solace in my assurances that their perches beneath blossoming trees was far superior to the teeming mess inside, no, missing the sight of their beloved Dead there on the stage, barely discernible across the distances was that greener grass found in the other guys bag. Pilgrims always. little did they know how good they did indeed had it in those days...
We were there. it was a time in Space...

Away I strolled into the twilight of that odd Seattle eve. Ever memorable. Off to my '66 splitty. Picking up some hitchers on the way south, on down to the Meadows... Back to life among the good, the live, the Dead... 22 years, 6 months, 15 days, 23 hours ago...
I found myself on a building site three months later in Jackson Hole unable to explain my tears to my coworkers as the report came over the airwaves of Jerry's death. Its been a long strange trip to be sure. It's what makes us who we are today

I was at this show when I was 10 years old. My family had driven from Vancouver to Seattle the year before to see the Dead in 94. Although this wasn't my first show, this one is the most vivid and memorable for me. I remember most of it so clearly. I remember being so pumped when Set 1 began because I really wanted to hear Franklins Tower. When the show opened with Help on the Way, I knew it would eventually lead to that. Listening to it now makes me smile. As does Scarlet Begonias, Fire on the Mountain, Playing in the Band and Uncle Johns Band. I dare you to listen to this version of Stella Blue without tearing up. We were all choked up with emotion at the time, but it's obviously even more poignant now. Good Lovin was a great big party and I remember all of people in the stadium dancing and twirling. I read everyone else's reviews here and remember lots of other little things too, like the geese flying. I'll always be glad to have experienced this show first hand. These experiences shaped me big time. Thanks to my parents and thanks to the Dead. Love is real, Not fade away. Xo

Well, it of course wasn't the last show, nor even mine (that would be Portland) but almost twenty years later (...gulp...) I consider this to be Jerry's eulogy and a fine way to see the band out. Compared to the crumpled train wreck that was 7/9, I think you'd be best off hearing Jer in '95 as he may have wanted - alive, resourceful, even youthfully invigorated. The Man so dominates this show that it comes as a little bit of a shock to realize Bobby, of all people, managed just five songs the entire night, compared to Jerry's nine.

Set 1 opens with a tremendous bang - I really think H>S>F is the goods of the entire show, totally hot, heavy, textural - no problems at all here. Love Phil's contributions on Loose Lucy's vocal coda, and Bobby's two songs here come off better than his attempts in the 2nd set. Eternity was, IMHO, a wicked-cool song.

Set 2's bongo-and-wand-laden Scarlet > Fire is so absolutely recognizable and distinct you'll learn its rhythms and cues even after just a couple of listens....this is truly one of those moments when you simply say to hell with it and allow yourself to fall in to the band's determined effort, at this late stage, to blow the doors off. Jerry busts out that 'wand' twice during the jam, and boy it's a shame he didn't get the chance to employ this thing more often. Jerry's eyebrow-raising vocals at the end of the jam aren't atypical for this era, but it will leave you kind of torn between wondering how successful his go at it really was.

UJB has a lovely poignancy to it, again - place it in the voodoo context of the band saying, inadvertently, 'farewell' and I can't think of a better way to see them off....so sad, so beautiful, so raggedly perfect.

The long ride across the beam lands us in a sort of questionable territory for the rest of the show....Easy Answers isn't a *bad* song by any means, but it does make me wonder if this thing would have lasted another year in the rotation. Coming out of Space it certainly sounds bizarre, what with Vince's horn-synth keys and all.....

Stella, oh Stella - here's the moment that microcosms this show, a rough, landing for this old classic, Jerry reaching in, tearing his heart out of his chest and pinning it to his shirtsleeve while evoking, again, quite a vocal go. My reaction to all this crumbling, trembling, shakiness stops somewhere between embarrassed, moved, joyous, glad, *facepalmed*, and ALMOST teary-eyed. I don't deny it's the culmination of the band's legacy working on me here, not an out-of-context appreciation for this thing on its own...but just give it a listen. Gone is that easy, soulful confidence from 10/1/94 at Boston - we have a man now on the threshold, daring his audience to listen.

Liberty, in all its giddiness, is perfect. Doesn't bring this show up to a five-star standard - there's far too many moments when you wonder who's lashed to the mast and steering the ship - but I tell you what, if you're going to go into '95, start and stop here. It was probably the final major rapid in the river.

This is the best one of the whole tour, a diamond in the very rough and that my friends, deserves 5 stars.

I have to go with everyone else. Great Scarlet-Fire. Great Space. You can get this on Nugs.net in the free stash. Best '93-'95 show.

I've been looking for something (anything) redeemable from this tour that can stand on musical merits, as opposed to fond memories, cult worship, or "after blowing the first verse, Garcia rips into his guitar for a few bars and mostly stays in tune..."

Honestly? There is very little music to be found on this tour... This show? Better than most, perhaps the best, but all that means is that the band approached competency; the days of blowing minds was long, long passed. Garcia's vocals, which would be a disgrace coming from anyone else (which makes Garcia's fatal addiction disgraceful), are among his best of the tour. He gets a good 75% of the verses right, even is in tune here and there. His guitar approximates the level of a teenage Deadhead attempting to sound like his hero... Weir and the others has gone from sloppy to slovenly, but bring it back up a notch to sloppy again, the urgency of their situation must have been starting to play on their minds...

All of which sounds like one big dis, and it is to an extent and the band earned it. As "important" as they are to the fans, they had no business doing this tour; presenting a half-dead Jerry was a ripoff, and it probably cost him his life in the bargain. I still get a little angry when I think of the '94-'95 Dead; anger at Jerry, anger at the others, anger at the "organization" that needed to take the fans' money for this abomination of a tour...

...and having said all of that, the Scarlet Begonias>>Fire on the Mountain turns out to be the nugget I was looking for.

It's as shoddy as everything else here, but Garcia manages to pull himself together for two songs' worth of fine playing. Bum notes fly like beer bottles, but he stays on focus and soars. Despite the MIDI effects (which I generally disliked, but don't mind here) he actually reminds me of the long-gone Jerry of the 70's; he suddenly discovers new space in these moldy oldies and I was mesmerized; it was as if I hsd never heard the potential in both songs through all these years, and Jerry's very last triumph may well be this segment...

It's back to business as usual after that, but as noted before, it could have been a lot worse. And was, most of the time.

It is such a profound waste that it came down to this. I still can't take any '95 show from opening note to closing note. But these songs make better closers for Dead compilation discs, instead of the final Black Muddy River I had been using... That one is just sad; these actually are...well, musical.

I like this show, definitely check it out. I am not one of those heads who think that once the middle 80's hit the dead were finished. Sure they might have gotten a bit rusty occasionally but what band doesn't from time to time? Even the youngest freshest bands have their off days, months, years.

I love the dead, and in any great relationship you take the bad and the great times, its all just part of the experience :) I think a lot can be learned about a band when you hear them at their best and at their worst.

This is a good show, 4 stars in my opinion. A strong Scarlet>Fire, the boys busting some interesting sounds out during Fire.

Yes, I did it. I gave 4 stars to a 95. All it was missing was a Dark Star with a good space jam or a blazing Dew, or I'd have given it 5.

This sounds more like a 91 show than a 95. I'm up to Easy Answers typing this, and so far I haven't heard a single badly played song. Even starting the first set with the challenging H>S>F, Jerry got most of the words and played the arpeggiated chords at the beginning and end of Slipknot! with only a couple of minor flubs. His tone was good throughout. My only quibble was he didn't get into the upper register much during Slipknot!, and Vince didn't do a whole lot either, but it was just the first song. Jerry and Vince both ratcheted up the intensity during the bluesy Same Thing and continued through the end of the first set.

Laugh at me all you want, but I like Eternity. It's a jazz number with keyboard and guitar solos, and Jerry usually came alive for the newer songs even if he mailed in the ones he'd done 600 times. Vince and Jerry both sparkle on this one.

I think Jerry realized he was on during the set break, because he turned up the volume on his guitar. What followed was a Scarlet>Fire for the ages. Seriously, I think I've found a new favorite! Scarlet is gorgeous and well-played, as is the transition jam, but the real magic comes during Fire. After a long and blazing first solo, where the band rises up to meet Jerry in spine tingling fashion, Jerry decides to try something different for the second solo, and starts playing slide leads. At first it seemed like he was just messing around, but he kept it up with more and more intensity going way into the upper register, stopping to play regular picking leads way up on his guitar, and then going back into the sliding. The band soon picked it up themselves, with Bob and Vince coaxing colorful counterpoint in collaboration. A magical performance that doesn't have the steady buildup to a titanic climax of 5/8/77, or the well-crafted flow of 3/5/81, but blows the mind in a whole different way.

Playin' is cooking, but unfortunately very short before Jerry shifts keys. There's a bit of a "searching for the sound" moment before the band settles into a strong Uncle John's Band. I think Jerry was still having problems playing fast, as he starts to go into a typical fast, "circular" as I call it Playin' lead, but isn't hacking it and cuts it off to go into UJB. Within his limitations, though, he was still capable of driving the band to magical peaks, as would happen again on Stella Blue. I had to stop typing to listen to the end of that. I don't care much for Easy Answers, but would have taken that one easily over any of the four Miracles or three Last Times I heard in my eight Vince shows.

By the way, to the person who said spring 95 was Jerry's last gasp, I was at all three Philly shows, and none was even close to this one. Maybe the Charlotte shows got this good, if only because of Hornsby. Also, to LABC, that was not a "mess;" that's why they call it space. And this was a good one, with everyone involved.

I found myself crying after this one ended, because Jerry could still get it done at such a high level so close to the end. What if he'd taken better care of himself? What if he'd taken time off, gotten cleaned up, handled the diabetes, gotten a more ergonomic guitar to deal with the carpal tunnel syndrome? It didn't happen. This may have been the last truly wonderful Grateful Dead show.

The H-S-F kind of summarizes '95 -- one-third illumination, one-third nothing special, the rest WTF? The first set has its moments and Jerry definitely perks up during Fire. But Space is a mess (Jerry fighting off Vince's attempt to give some structure to it, Easy Answers sounds like a Steely Dan knock-off (and has no business being in the second set). They take a good swing at PITB>UJB but there's just not enough in the tank to sustain it. Rest is passable but this one's a three at best.

Finally, I'm able to listen to this show.
After 13 years, I was wondering if I'd ever get the chance.
My last show.
Who can account for the effects of time, who were we then?
who are we now? I remember that place taking off like a space
ship bound for the far reaches during scarlett-fire, everyone in
the place spinnin' and dancing their hearts out. We all knew that
that was one of those moments that come from time to time.
If you weren't at this show and you listen to it now would you
know? Could you tell from just the music what an incredible
event of energy and music and spirit was going on at that moment in time. Listening to it now, I don't think so.
It was lived 100% in the moment. For all of us,
fans and musicians, we were purely in the present moment, there was no past and no future. Scarlett-Fire on that day became a portal into that special place we sadly only get to visit
from time to time. That place is pure consciousness, without thought or worry. That's why we loved going to shows. That's why we loved the band, loved the community. When you share moments like that with others, they immediately become family.
That moment isn't in the recording, it cant' be. It was lived in the moment, and now we are on to the next moment and the next........ Inside all this music history though is a finger pointing at the moon. The music is the finger, not to be discarded, but not to be mistaken for the moon either.The light is the beauty of
those moments. Their availability and our capacity to experience them is around us all the time. The legacy of the band and the music is that vision, that view of our inherent capacity to live like that: alive, awake, without fear. Some recordings live and shine
because of musical technique, some shine because of what was going on that day. This show is one of the later, it doesn't make it any less special, but I think it's important to make a distinction.
When you hear the faint roar of the crowd coming to you in tiny bits of digital sound waves and you know some of it is you coming back to you from 13 years ago, does it blow your mind?
It blows mine.
Peace and Love

I just cleaned up the writing a bit from last week so don't feel the need to read if you've already been here.

What gets my goat is the raving about this Seattle '95 show that also opens with Help>Slip>Frank. Okay, raving is a bit strong I know (as is "gets my goat"), but I was at this show, loved it at the time but have never felt it held up on tape or Ipod or whatever you youngsters listen to the Dead on these days. In fact this show is kind of embarrassing because we all thought it so righteous at the time. . There are other shows in '95 that are better (Spring Tour) and yet this show is singled out as the the best. I threw it on last week to be sure. Maybe I'll compare. Or maybe I'll just throw on a show from '72. Yeah, that sound like a good idea.

Here's an update: I don't "hate" the 90's. I think 90-91 was a peak time for the band. There are many shows from 92-94 I rate highly. Even the Estimated from the first night of this run is superb IMHO)and comes out of nowhere! I have been playing almost exclusively '94-95 the last few weeks. Does this sound like an 90's hater? I like looking for those moments where Garcia pokes his head up through the cloud and suddenly is present from this era much the same way I like later Charlie Parker records. I too would rather be at this show than at no show. I think I told you all that I truly enjoyed myself at this show. But Scarlet>Fire and Help>Slip!>Frank dive-bombed in '95. Garcia couldn't bluff those songs. He certainly plays a better Fire here than on previous '95 occasions, but to rate it as others have done as the best show of the year discounts the Spring Tour that I feel was really his last gasp.

I love all Grateful Dead eras and have even added some '95 stuff to my collection in the last two weeks and will no doubt add more of this run (I was at all three shows and Portland) and the previous Seattle run (and Autzen '94 too---Hey Autzen '94 third night---compare the Fire's and you tell me if I'm wrong about all this. That being said I still play this show from time to time. But I ain't gonna change my rating. And really guys, I'm not out to hurt anyone's feelings. I know there are some real nasty dudes on this site who aren't exactly subtle and can be pretty insulting. I am not one of those guys.

Updated 4/24/08

Can someone please upload a high quality audience copy of this show? There has to be one out there. There's like 342 show uploaded from 1985. There HAS to be a sweet AUD of this show.

This show isn't even listed in the collection of 1995. You can get a link through deadlists.com.

5/26 was a good day for the Dead. Check out their shows in '72, '73, '77, '93, and '95. It's worth your while. Hang Loose.

Revision: I would like to thank whomever uploaded this show in a sweet sounding aud. It didn't seem to stay on very long and I am glad I was able to grab it when I could. Big, big thanks.

Jerry was spot on, the band was experimental, the weather and venue were perfect...what more could ask for but a little more?! Sadly this was perhaps the last great Dead Show...Every tune was almost a highlight unto itself...right up to the Liberty encore.

It wouldn't be too much longer until we all had to find our own way home.

RIP Jerry.

5 stars given the circumstances. In another year 3.5-4

sad but good Fire on the Mountain is great
Thank you Jerry,
JurassicBlueberries

Best of the year i dont know i saw the last 20 shows of Jerrys life. But this three night run was awesome and is a solid indication that they still had it. To a previous rater go put on your 70s dead quite frankly i like every era they all hold special places in my heart. Most of my shows were in the 90s so that was my time on the bus and no matter how they played i'd give anything to be there right now in any era. Put that in your pipe and smoke it 90s haters.

I really love this show. It's just good, trippy Dead. If Dick's Picks wants to showcase '95, I'd say this is the show. Just a good 90's show.

Do any of you remember the geese flying through the stadium near the end of the show? Good times.

Matt

While this show certainly had it's highlights I have a hard time saying it was the best of '95. It was great to finally get a Help-Slip-Frank's in Seattle but beyond that the show was fairly sloppy. Anyone who loves this Scarlet-Fire needs to listen to 3/22/90 Copps to hear what the band could really do with this song. Great venue, great city. The boys also soundchecked Tough Mama at this venue. Now that would have been something.

I wanted to add that during space there was a flock of black birds swirling around the space needle. With that and Jerry bowing my mind during Fire on the Mountain it seemed Jerry was using the Space Needle to tune his frequencies. Easily the best 95 show.

I was at this show. It was an amazing performance on a beautiful day in Seattle. Thanks for the recording!

This is IMO the last show the Grateful Dead pulled out the "Magic" before we lost Jerry. I loved this venue and was fortunate enough to catch the Dead ther 5 times. each time was special and especially this particular show. It was a beautiful spring day in Seattle and Grateful Dead magic was in the air. I stayed at the Best Western accross the street and peering out the window in my room i could see the Space Needle and the Memorial Coliseum stands and excitement was to bee seen everywhere. The streets around the Seattle center were filled with heads walking and dancing around and you knew something special was about to happen. The Memorial Coliseum was a small outdoor venue with two grand stands flanking each other and a small field area just enough room to fit a football field ala high scholl size. The set up was beautiful with the Canvas sails hung up on the stage depicting daybreak to sundown. Behind the stage area was a row of tall pines that could be seen swaying with the cool seattle breezes as the Jerry & Gang rocked the whole place out. Now I know I'm beeing biased here since this was the 3rd to last time I saw the Dead and it being one of my favorite shows out the 60 I saw from 1981 to 1995 but believe me this is one awesome ahow. From the first notes of Help On The way things were getting stretched out and wierd. Bobby's guitar hand a changleing kind of effect when he was strumming it and Jerry and Phil both took it to another level. Hell even Vince Welnick who I really didn't care much for because of the way he used to drown out Jerry or interupt Jerry's solo with his brashness on the keyboard sounded like he was in sync with the rest of the band, just the right touch and stepping in when it really was his turn LOL. Franklin's Tower was next and Jerry emphasized "I want you to ROLL AWAY!! the dew." and the set the tone for the rest of the show. You couldn't help but fell that all things didn't matter and the only thiong left was to put a shitty grin on your face and start grooving to the music like your life depended on it. Same Thing was played to perfection and Loose Lucy had everybody go into overdrive only to take you into another world with Eternity. I love the way they played Eternity with that snakey feel to it, very nice indeed. willy dixon had to be proud of the way the boys palyed that song, it just had that feel to it. The first was rapped up with a nice Don't Ease and we were all able to catch our second wind before the next set. what happened next is waht I really mean by Magic. The whole second set represented what i would say is a collective input from many years of being the Good Ol' Grateful Dead. Past and present was molded into one and the end result was far out into the stratosphere and beyond this galaxy. You got to listen to this Scarlet-Fire with all it's great guiter work from Jerry,Phil and Bob. this is the trippiest verasion out there IMO. Jerry pulls out his magic "Wand" and right away it starts congering up images of killer whales flying out of Puget Sound and twirling in the air above the Memorial Coliseum, the white stripe on their saly wet underbellies changing into every color one could imagine. Yes folks music can project you into a higheer conciousness and this is a good example of just that. The playing- Uncle was paired up nicely before drums and the Space had your attention. Easy answers shredded through your body and then jerry put you down to a floating stream with the stella Blue. Good Lovin made you want to dnace all night and day and the Liberty closer was appropriate enough being we were in Seattle. The heads and the citizens of Seattle have always been voicing their concern over many things regarding the city, the ecology and local politics. Liberty should be the city's song LOL. Please stream this show and enjoy the the "Magic"

having never seen The Grateful Dead I don't have alot to say about them but having listened to a wide range of Grateful Dead shows this is one of the craziest Scarlet > Fire I have ever listened to wasnt the pedal Jerry using during Fire called "The Magic Wand" and wasnt it the first time he ever used it? I read that somewhere.

I lived 90 minutes north of Seattle in Bellingham and 2 days before these shows I had no plans of even going due to GD burnout and frankly not very interested in current GD. The day of 5/25 I said "What the hell am i doing? Jerry is playing in Seattle, get your ass down and see him." It was a voice of necessity in my head and later I understood why. I bought tix at the stadium and the 25th was quite surprisingly fun for me and got me eerily excited for the next eve. The spring PNW weather was beautiful that 3 day run. From Help/Slip/Franklins opener of 5/26 and I knew it was going to be a good night. I couple was married next to us on the floor phil's side at set break. The Scarlet>Fire seriously caught my attention. Jerry was lovin it. But the Party highlight of the night (and this may not come accross on tape) was the Good Lovin' the stadium was a popcorn machine with all the happy heads dancin their asses off. Smiles all around. I remember seeing people hanging out of their apartment windows in lower Queen Anne looking into the stadium watchin' all of us rockin out. It was party that couldn't be ignored in the neighborhood and we were happily keepin up the neighbors. Lookin back I'm so happy I made that decision on the 25th. It was a great note to end my decade with the boys. Thanks Jerry!

Sidenote: Fittingly for my last GD show, this show was on the eve of Memorial Day Weekend in Memorial Stadium.

I have an excellent aud of this show sourced from jay serafin some time ago. I was hoping that this sbd would be better despite the previous comments, but its not. I have heard the vast majority of '95 and nothing holds a candle to this one. In fact, I have to go back to '93 to find something in which the band (and jerry) sound this confident.

I agree with "dmilks" that the amount of "best show of the year" designations for 1995 makes most of them meaningless however.....Dupree's Diamond News and Relix said that if there was a stand out show of 1995, this had to be it. I give it 5 stars because it was the last time I really saw Jerry play like he could when he was relatively healthy.

Tweak the highs and the mids on your eq and you can actually eake out a good enough sounding version of this to give it a listen.

1st set highlight: Eternity, gets WAY out there, made me think I was trapped in a second set somewhere!

2nd set highlight: Scarlet>Fire, actually it is pretty awesome by any years measure!

I don't know if this is the best of the year, as some claim, but I would also be curious to know if the people who make these claims actually listened to the whole years worth of shows before they made this determination. My guess would be they didn't. At just about any show in 1995, there is some reviewer claiming it was "the best of the year". After a while it becomes pretty meaningless.

Great show..

The weird sounds coming from Jerry's guitar is a Digitech Whammy pedal.

Check out the 25th as well..

I haven't listened to many '95 shows, most bits I've heard are pretty bad. But this show is a keeper and a great show all around with fantastic performances. Garcia is ON here. The "Fire" has got some funky things going on in it - it's one of the best versions I've heard from ANY year, IMO. The whole show is worth an official release and is, as the other reviewers noted, probably the Dead's last great show. One more for the road, please. Get it!

Note: The sound quality is not as good as most sbd's, and as someone said the levels seem a little messed or something. But its not at all horrible; it's definitely listenable and worth the download. Just tweak your EQ and it'll be fine (until a better version emerges).

Can't agree more with the other reviewers. I was at this run of shows too (and live in Seattle)and was blown away by Fridays second set. I have listened to this scarlet-fire countless times and never get bored of it. Why? Because Jerry went places in this Fire that he has never visited before and we all know Jerrys been "out there beyond the cosmos many times before" In fact, I was so curious about Jerry's exploration in this tune (weird string bending stuff)that I went back and listen to shows before and after this one to see if he had been doing these weird sounds and yes; listen to the Portland shows and you'll notice in several songs including the Terrapin him doing what he did in this Fire. Oh...BTW...I remember reading in Relix Magazine that they too rated this show as one of the top shows in 95...glad I saw it....I'll never forget seeing all the smoke rising from the crowd when that scarlet-fire started....

Thought I would take a trip down nostalgia lane tonight and bust this out on the tenth anniversary of the Last Great Dead Show. I flew down from AK to see the five shows in the PNW and it was the best decision of my touring life. Seattle was unseasonably hot (ironically, it was over 85 today!) and the perfect setting for a three day extravaganza. All three nights were good, but Friday was otherworldly at times. The beginning of the second set smoked in a way that I had not heard since 91. Jerry was using some crazy effects in the extended Fire that make it one of my favorite late versions of this song.
An exceptional show from the band in it's final days. Listening to it today I am so thankful to have had such a wonderful experience in the city I now call home.
The sound quality is good, not great and the levels are low, likely due to the analog gen.

some say the best of 95. I wouldn't argue. Something wierd going on in the fir on the mountain. Check it out for that alone. Not just a 4 stars for 95, but 4 stars overall. this is a good show and should be checked out

The was the best of 95 and the best in a long time. Jerry was in rare form and Bobby was tossing out the strangest sounds since 91. Check out the Fire and Stella Blue for some of the hottest versions of these songs ever.

By the way, anyone who says this show sounds bad, doesn't know what a bad show sounds like.

There are much better sounding sources for stuff out of the 60's.

Simply wonderful show, but this recording is like listening to it with a tablespoon of wax in each ear.

Was this the night they soundchecked TOUGH Mama!?! That was one for the ages. The entire line was groovin to some good ole JGB.

Far and away, the best performance of 95.

judging this show on the sound quality alone, it does not possess anything close to the clarity of other dsbds from the 1990's (especially 1995). it seems to me that perhaps the azumith was not adjusted well during cassette transfer. the bass is muddy and the levels are messed. hopefully a better seed will emerge from this otherwise strong show.

What a great show this was. Solid and well performed, unlike most of '95. The weather was gorgeous and Jerry's "Outer Space" guitar sounds during 'Fire on the Mountain' and the Space Needle above us made for an interesting moment. 'Stella Blue' is beautiful and haunting as Jerry wails on and on at the end. You can hear the tears in his eyes. Worth listening to.

best i've heard from 1995. that day, the crowd was mellow and it was easy to get up close, even though it was friday. jerry tweaked notes from a bank of wah pedals set up on his cabinet, getting some odd, space needle sounds into the middle of the fire. it was a unique twist that promised of greater moments to come, but y'all know the rest. 8^(= finally, there's a board of this. THANKS ARCHIVE!

* (five stars for '95, not in comparison to, say, 8-27-72, 2-13-70, 2-14-68, 10-9-89, etc. not even close.)*

Best show in the last 3 or 4 years!!!! Jammed out, inspired, crackling energy. Definatley Jerry LAST stand!! Get this over all '95 shows